We have extensive experience in designing, developing,
implementing and supporting sophisticated
Patient Tracking systems for medical
research facilities.

For example, we created an application for an
NIA-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Center (ADRC) that performs the following
functions:

>
Appointment Scheduling

Appointments
are made and managed through this system.
The application records rescheduling
requests, as well as postponements,
cancellations, and no shows. The system
creates reminder lists of which patients are
due/overdue for appointments; it can also
generate confirmation and reminder letters
to the patients. Both clinic and home visits
are scheduled; procedure appointments (e.g.,
MRI / fMRI
appointments) may also be
scheduled.

>Patient Demographics

Each patient is represented in
the system by a Subject Master
record that contains extensive
demographic, status (including
latest conference diagnosis) and
consent information. The Subject
Master record “anchors” all
other records pertaining to the
patient.

>
Visits

Each visit made by the patient
is recorded and “attached” to
the Subject Master record.

>
Test Batteries

Associated with each visit are a
number of tests and examinations
– some or all of which may be
conducted at any given visit. 17
forms, representing some 22
tests, examinations, histories
and diagnosis capture points are
available at each visit. The
majority of the forms currently
in use are compliant with the
Uniform Data Set (UDS) forms
recently developed by the
National Alzheimer’s
Coordinating Center (NACC); the
remainder are currently being
modified to be compliant with
the UDS standard. Once this
process is complete, the system
will be able to generate UDS
records for uploading to the
national ADRC data repository.

>
Autopsies

An extensive neuropathological
workup is done and recorded for
those patients who go to autopsy
under the auspices of the ADRC.
This workup is used to produce
the records for uploading to the
NACC Neuropath Data repository.

>
Standard Queries and Reports

Included in the application are
a number of “standard” queries
and reports that the ADRC uses
to manage the database, as well
as to generate some basic
statistics about the study
population. The “standard” set
encompasses a variety of
housekeeping and data diagnostic
chores (e.g., finding patients
who are missing key data items),
as well as demographic and
diagnostic grouping reports. We
have also constructed a
“sandbox” for the ADRC – a
database that allows researchers
read-only access to the data in
which those researchers may
write their own queries and
reports. We are in the process
of building a “blind” version of
the sandbox – in which
researchers will be able to have
read-only access to the
demographic, visit and test/exam
data without having access to
personal identification
information.

For additional information and references,
please contact us by email or by phone.